Aung San Suu Kyi spends another birthday under house arrest

A lone man who staged a protest in Burma’s main city of Rangoon was detained by police today as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 61st birthday, alone and under house arrest by the military government.

The military beefed up security outside the barricaded home of Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy and the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

She has spent 10 of the last 17 years in confinement, making her one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners.

Her birthday was marked around the world by supporters, who oppose the ruling junta for its human rights abuses and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

In neighbouring Thailand, Burmese exiles held a small Buddhist religious ceremony in Bangkok, while in the Philippines, activists wearing chains and carrying a replica of a giant cake marched to the Burmese Embassy to demand Suu Kyi’s release.

Similar activities took place in India, Bangladesh and Italy, as well as elsewhere.

“I’m bitterly disappointed that today Aung San Suu Kyi will spend her 61st birthday under house arrest, cut off from her family and friends, haing had her house arrest extended yet again,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement.

“This is utterly unacceptable.”

In her homeland, Suu Kyi’s political party celebrated her birthday at its headquarters, several miles from her home. They released nine doves into the sky along with hundreds of coloured balloons with letters attached calling for her freedom.

About 200 supporters then held a daytime candlelight vigil and chanted “Free Aung San Suu Kyi!” non-stop for 10 minutes.

About two dozen plain clothes security officers filmed the event with video cameras from across the street.

Separately, a male protester was detained by police after staging a solo protest near Sule Pagoda, near City Hall in downtown Rangoon. Witnesses and supporters said he wore a white T-shirt with Suu Kyi’s picture and shouted slogans urging her release as police took him away.

Security around City Hall was very tight, with scores of policemen stationed at busy street corners.

A Bangkok-based opposition group, Forum for Democracy in Burma, identified the protester as Htun Htun, a young activist and member of the youth wing of Suu Kyi’s party from Nyaung Done township southwest of Rangoon. In an e-mailed statement, the group said they did not know where police had taken him or whether he had been charged.

Over the years there have been occasional peaceful protests by individuals or small groups in the streets of Rangoon, always quickly quashed. Some of those arrested have been given jail terms of up to seven years.

Police had stepped up security starting last night by blocking the road leading to Suu Kyi’s Rangoon residence and barring traffic from driving past her home, said a nearby resident.

Dozens of guards were posted at a checkpoint, and barbed-wire was added to barricades near her home.

The military junta, fearing Suu Kyi’s political strength and popularity, most recently detained her in 2003 after a pro-government mob attacked her entourage while she was on a political tour of northern Burma. She was held first by the military, then transferred to house arrest.

Suu Kyi is allowed virtually no contact with the outside world, although last month a senior UN official was allowed a rare visit to her home. The meeting stirred hopes that the regime was considering releasing her.

But hopes were dashed when the government extended her house arrest on May 27 for another year. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and world leaders, including US President George Bush, have called for her freedom.

Burma’s junta took power in 1988 after crushing pro-democracy demonstrations. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide election victory.

Suu Kyi’s father was the country’s martyred independence hero, General Aung San, a legacy that adds to her popularity.